Supermicro Debuts 4W And 8W Atom-Based Servers

Green is definitely the new black...or something to that effect, anyway. As more and more companies attempt to squeeze more horsepower out of chips while using less energy, Supermicro is looking to raise (or should we say, "lower") the bar even more. The company has just launched its 4W and 8W Atom Server solutions, each of which barely make a dent in the power bill.

Weighing just ten pounds and with a depth of 9.8", these "mini-sized" 5015A SuperServers feature a high-efficiency, quiet power supply, two internal hard drives, and a full-height, half-length expansion card option. These are designed for use in embedded applications, though the expansion here makes 'em useful in a variety of situations. And even for an Atom-based system, these things devour a remarkably small amount of energy.

Ideally, these would be used where power comes at a premium and where silence is valued. Something like a print server, storage server, email server, etc. The X7SLA-L platform, which consumes just 4 watts of power and includes Intel's Atom 230 processor, supports up to four SATA ports with RAID /1/5/10, seven USB 2.0 headers, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, Intel's GMA950 graphics and a Gigabit Ethernet socket. The higher-end X7SLA-H integrates the dual-core Atom 330 processor, which consumes 8 watts of power and expands upon the features of the X7SLA-L with dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, an additional onboard Type A USB 2.0 connector and an extra internal serial port. No price is mentioned for either, but both should be available to order now via the right channels.